The UK’s Biggest Sports Fan Cities Ranked

By Matthew Glazier

Mar 27th, 2026 10:28 AM EDT

We’ve long known that the UK is a sports-mad nation. Whether it’s football, rugby union, rugby league, cricket or pretty much any sport you can think of, there’s a big captive audience up and down the land who want to watch the action in person and on UK betting apps. However, the team at Bookies.com were keen to find where geographically the passion for sport was the greatest!

Everyone knows about the city rivalries that exist across the different sports. Manchester United and Liverpool’s feud is a historical and geographical one, while Newcastle and Sunderland are two north-east football giants and the derby days returned in 2025/26, with the Black Cats coming out on top, much to the surprise of betting sites up and down the land.

There are also county rivalries and most notably the War of the Roses where Lancashire and Yorkshire often lock horns across several sports including cricket. On the rugby union front, the south-west is a hotbed of fandom where there’s no love lost between Bristol Bears and Bath.

Our curiosity led us to undertake some extensive research in our quest to find the city with the biggest sport fanbase. We firstly narrowed down our project to the top 15 cities in the United Kingdom according to population. We then chose three of the leading sports in the country and used the following competitions:

• Football: English Premier League
• Rugby Union: Gallagher PREM Rugby or United Rugby Championship
• Cricket: County Championship Division One

Using these three elite competitions, we can reveal which cities were the most sports mad in the UK. Our results are as follows:

How We Measured the Biggest Sports Fan Cities

Newcastle and Manchester came out as the top cities according to our two-component scoring system. We based the results on attendance per capita and teams per capita. With the former, it came down to the sum of average per match attendances for all top-division clubs in a city, divided by the city’s population. For the latter, it’s the total number of top-division clubs across all three sports divided by the city’s population, expressed per 100,000 residents.

Newcastle Officially the King of Sports Fan Cities

Geordies rejoice! Newcastle is the biggest city in sports fandom! But maybe it should come as no surprise. After all, supporting Newcastle United is akin to a religion on Tyneside. There’s a fervent passion for the Magpies, especially in more recent times since Eddie Howe steered them to a Carabao Cup success.

The relatively new ownership means full houses at St James’ Park every week, with Champions League football having been on the menu in more recent times. Newcastle Red Bulls are also well-supported in the Gallagher PREM Rugby, with Kingston Park having a capacity of 10,200. That could well increase in the years to come with Red Bull’s investment.

Manchester Finish a Close Second in Rankings

Manchester is also in the elite tier, according to the research experts at Bookies.com. It clearly helps to have two well-supported football teams in the Premier League. It’s particularly hard to get a ticket for a game at Old Trafford, while City’s continuing success under Pep Guardiola also sees them sell out the Etihad Stadium on a regular basis.

Sale Sharks are also part of the Gallagher PREM Rugby furniture, with the CorpAcq Stadium able to house as many as 12,000 spectators for each game.

Liverpool a Clear Third Ahead of Nottingham and Sunderland

In Liverpool, you’re either a red or a blue. Liverpool FC and Everton FC are ways of life for scousers who love their football. We weren’t able to use a rugby or cricket metric to judge this city considering that there’s no prominent team for either sport. Lancashire play some games in Liverpool but they would class as Manchester if they weren't in Division Two of the County Championship. However, the full houses at Anfield and the Hill Dickinson Stadium leaves it with a bronze medal.

Another city rated in the “strong” tier is Nottingham. Forest have been in the Premier League over the past few seasons, with the City Ground always full in the English top flight. Trent Bridge is home to one of the strongest country cricket outfits in the form of Nottinghamshire, who won the 2025 County Championship.

Sunderland’s return to the Premier League and the relatively modest population of the city means the Wearside city achieves fifth place in the rankings. The Stadium Of Light is full to bursting regularly, with the Black Cats having been able to achieve a top-flight double over arch-rivals Newcastle this season.

Leicester Ahead of Mid-Tier Cardiff and Leeds

Leicester City might not be in the Premier League anymore, so they don’t count towards this metric, but the city is well-represented by virtue of Leicester Tigers and the Leicestershire county cricket team. Similarly, it might be a while before Cardiff’s football team returns to the top-flight, but Glamorgan are back in Division One of the County Championship and there’s also the rugby union team in the United Rugby Championship.

Leeds are back in the English Premier League on the football front and the city can also boast the formidable Yorkshire cricket team. This is a well-supported side in the County Championship, although the big population means they can only finish in eighth.

Belfast and Bristol Complete Top 10 But No Place for London

Ulster Rugby’s presence in the United Rugby Championship is enough to catapult Belfast into the top 10 sports cities, with Bristol Bears also being one of the stronger rugby union teams in the Gallagher PREM.

There might be some raised eyebrows at the omission of London from the list. After all, the Big Smoke is blessed with no fewer than seven leading Premier League football sides. There are also Surrey and Essex competing in the County Championship, with Harlequins and Saracens flying the flag as far as rugby union is concerned. However, London only comes in at 13th thanks to the enormous population of 8.8 million. Better luck next time!

Do You Agree with Our Rankings?

We know there will be disagreements with our ranking of UK sports cities. Some would argue Newcastle United’s fandom and capacity distorts the order, with Manchester’s elite status a result of having two big football clubs selling out on a regular basis.

Ultimately, some cities missed out thanks to not having any current EPL or top-division rugby representation. Sheffield was chief among them, although we feel as though using the above metrics across three popular sports helped us provide an accurate reflection.

About the Author

Matthew Glazier

More About Matthew

Matthew Glazier, the former Head of Marketing at bet365, is a veteran in the online betting industry and contributes to Bookies.com. Whether it's online casino or sports betting, there's nothing he hasn't seen before. He's always got his eye out for new casinos, betting features and bonuses.

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